Baby steps...big steps

In 1973, when the APA finally removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders, it was a pretty big victory for the gay community. At the time, and especially in years before then, you still had a large amount or even a majority at one time of mental health professionals who thought homosexuality was a sickness. I have sex education books from the 1960's that were written by fairly progressive people at that time, and they categorized homosexuals as having a sickness just like child molesters (the term pedophile was seldom used before the 1990s).

So anyway, the APA ruling was a turning point for them and they went on to bigger, better things. The mental health community still has liaisons with the gay community who specialize in specific outreach programs to meet their needs, even though homosexuality is obviously no longer considered to be a sickness except with a small minority of mental health practitioners (mainly people who are more influenced by their religious beliefs than their mental health training). I can only applaud groups like B4U-ACT who are attempting to do the same for us.